Vaulter Files
by Sir Eddy
Summary: Atlas Military Archives: Collection of various data, notes, and files of wanted criminal Dr. Harrack Vaulter; Stage 4 Security Clearance required, access must be granted by General James Ironwood
1. Intro to Vaulter

Sometimes being a scientist is one of the most difficult professions you can be in this world. What you choose to specialize in makes so much of a difference in your quality of living, and if you choose wrong, life will never move easily for you. Sometimes you may not accomplish a damn thing with your brilliance and talents for a variety of reasons. Maybe you choose something that, in the minds of the majority, is pointless and irrelevant to study; I have met many people who think a field such as botany and zoology are pointless endeavours. It is difficult to achieve much in some fields of study without anyone to help fund your work.

On the note of funds, sometimes it is the difficulty in testing and studying your chosen field. Studying our world at an atomic level is no easy feat, and producing the necessary equipment to do so is costly to the point that even a Schnee might pale at the thought of doing so (not that they can really get much paler.)

Sometimes the life of a scientist is such a thankless job. The engineering and science into creating efficient and cost effective dust-based combustion engines was no easy task, and yet the brilliant Arya Westalin, a woman ahead of her time, is barely known by those outside of the field. Even other scientists know little of her, a tragedy truly.

The difficulty of testing is always a barrier as well with some subjects, and sometimes it is not just the difficulty of physically testing something that is an issue. Whereas trying to physically study a black hole is not something that will be accomplished anytime soon due to the obvious difficulties of doing so, studying microorganisms and their effect on larger organisms can almost be just as difficult. Ethics and morality can be a strong obstacle to overcome as well, as truly it is not difficult to infect a human or faunus with a virus and to observe what occurs; getting others to willingly allow such procedures is the hard part. Even finding individuals who were infected with such a virus due to simple bad luck can be hard to study, as now concern for their well being and rights such as privacy can get in the way. I think the dangers of working with such subjects also does not to be stated; danger being another hurdle for scientists to overcome.

I do not diminish the difficult and dangerous work of people like hunters or even the miners deep in Schnee dust mines, two groups I have closely worked with for a number of my long years, but science and its followers are so often forgotten in that they too face all of these issues.

I am one such person, lost to the annals of history and chosen mostly to be forgotten by the majority. My work suffers from all the issues listed above as people discount my ideas and my work as pointless, thus I have no one to fund my work, people also detest my methods for acquiring materials for my study, and as such I find myself facing the points of spears and swords, edge of axes and maces, and the barrels of countless firearms.

To those who may read this and may have not seen my thesis put forth so long ago, I want you to try and understand what I want to accomplish, what it is I wish to prove and expand upon. I know that if we truly follow my inquisition into the theory I am going to present, then our battles against the grimm will improve dramatically. I will not say that my ideas will lead to total victory, but I know that it will improve our odds greatly.

The controversial theory I present is that despite the magical appearance and effects auras and semblances display and do, I truly believe that they are still completely explainable through an understanding of how our physical world works. The hunter who forms fire in their hands has a semblance that simply combusts the matter floating just above their palms, or the huntress who can run along horizontal and vertical surfaces has a semblance that creates possibly a strong magnetic force between their feet and the surface, or maybe that semblance imparts some other kind of force to give the huntress that ability.

I believe this so adamantly, because I have learned through my many years on this planet how to replicate other semblances with my own. I can will matter to do my bidding, to solidify hydrogen in my very hand despite the warmth around it and melt titanium in the other hand and contain the liquid as if it was held by a container that you can not see. I do not mention the examples in the paragraph above as random ones, as I have replicated both.

Forcing the very molecules all around me to cease their motions we call "heat", directing all of it towards only a few above my hand to heat them up enough to combust the very air there. I walked along ceilings and walls through the very method I described above, causing objects that normally display extremely weak magnetic attractions to become strong enough to allow me to defy gravity.

I can replicate other semblances, not only because my semblance allow me to manipulate the very matter that makes up our world, but because I also understand just how our world works. It is my understanding of the physics and chemistry of our very world that grants me the ability to mimic other semblances through the use of my own. I in no way claim to understand what allows Semblances to do this level of manipulation of our physical world, that is a study I will surely look into once I can truly prove my current theory on them. The theory that the metaphysical is still bound to the physical world around us, that the actions of the metaphysical can still be explained by the rules of the physical world.

More importantly, the more we try to understand that semblances can be replicated, the more we can use such knowledge to our benefit. Some may be easy to replicate because the science behind them is easy to see and understand, but let me use the Schnee's as an example. Imagine if we were able to understand how the glyphs affected the physical world, and through that understanding replicate the process. If we were able to mimic their glyphs of speed to produce faster and more efficient travel methods, combined with their glyphs that allow them to cancel momentum, we could create an extremely fast, cheap, and safe transportation system. This is but a small example of what we could do, and the more semblances we understand, the more we could potentially replicate to strengthen ourselves as a whole.

It angers me to no end, to see the world shun me despite my attempts to improve, and ultimately save us all. I don't pretend to be a saint in any sense of the word, but surely people must see that what I present as a possible future is beautiful. Those very semblances used to combat the grimm could be mass-produced, so that all our guardians could be slinging fire and obtain extreme mobility to finally improve our standing in this ancient war against the shadows made real.

The actions I take, the criminal record I have developed, it was born from a world that ignored me. I do not want to hurt the world, but to further my studies I am forced to make such actions to get what is necessary to properly understand this complex science. That shade Salem is out there, she is busy, and I know for a fact that my theory, if proven true and put into use, will give us the edge we are going to need to fight her. An edge will desperately be needed, since I know I am only one of a few who are combating her machinations.


	2. Thermal Energy Control of Semblance

Electronic Journal Entry #1

 **Study:** Thermal Energy Control of Semblance.

 **Subject:**

Name: Yillmin Gaeradon

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Species: Faunus

Height: 5' 4"

Weight: 97lbs

Time of Internment: 7 Months

Condition: Fatigued, Sleep Deprived, Healthy

This is my first use of electronic text based processor, as I figure I might as well start catching up with the modern times. I mean, I use a lot of modern technology already in my research so I see no reason as to why I should continue to use pen and paper as my main form of recording these entries. Easier storage of data, quicker to put down my words and notes. I'll probably continue to make use of written material here and there, just because it is something I have been doing for so long now. Old habits die hard as they say.

Now then, onto the subject of this entry, young miss Gaeradon. The details of my acquiring her are not important, and have already been recorded in a written journal (Journal #230, Section 12). Her semblance, the ability to drastically reduce the thermal energy within various amounts of matter. Her semblance grants her the capability to change the state of matter from higher states to lower, gas-to-liquid, liquid-to-solid, etc. (I have yet to test to see if she can change plasma-to-gas as of yet.) She is practiced enough in use of it that she can form walls of ice (have identified it as being frozen water, so ice is proper term), forms shards she can then direct towards targets at high velocity, create ice patches on the ground, create spikes of ice to attack from beneath the target, as well as other various tricks.

The semblance is not limited to changing the temperatures of water alone, as it can affect all matter. She has attempted to freeze her cell to try and break free with no success due to its construction of the cell using ten inch aluminium walls, forced together into solid construction to prevent breakable seams through use of my semblance. Water, and water vapor, seems to be the easiest for her semblance to manipulate, given that a more recent test of mine had me placing her into an environment with significantly lowered water vapor content and then forcing her into hostilities to try and escape. Needless to say, her Cryourgic abilities were reduced. She required more concentration and effort to form her solid state based attacks. She was unable to mount an effective offense, and quickly found herself tiring out to the point that I was able to defeat her in four minutes and forty-one seconds. Interesting to note, I was able to acquire and maintain a sample of some solid matter she had formed, again through containment using my semblance, and I was shocked to discover it had turned out to be frozen nitrogen.

My hypothesis regarding her semblance has been that: her semblance has the ability to redirect the thermal energies of various matter to lower their temperatures enough to change them into liquid or solid states.

So far, my combat experiment with her seems to prove this theory, as by forcing her to utilize something other than water required greater effort, meaning it required her semblance to direct far more thermal energy for less solid matter to be formed. This resulted in her aura being drained much faster. Given nitrogen's freezing point of at -346°F, as opposed to the far easier to achieve freezing point of water at 32°F (despite water's higher specific heat), it points to the fact that her semblance does require her to freeze matter within the given environment.

I am quite ecstatic to have made such a finding, as it further points to the fact that semblances are still bound by the physical world in what they can do. The next step, and the biggest challenge for me though, is learning how her semblance performs the transfer of thermal energy as it does.

During the combat experiment, I had also had various equipment recording the temperature of the air within the room as well the walls, floor, and ceiling. As expected, areas she directed her semblance towards, as well as the frozen nitrogen she created, had extremely low temperatures. To my amazement though, the air around frozen locations did not change significantly, or at least not to a point that imply there had been significant exchange of thermal energy. This is very strange, as this would actually hint that energy was not transferred as would be expected from such drastic changes in temperature.

This is what stumps me the most in my research of this semblance, as despite its simplistic application and appearance, it probably has one of the most difficult to understand mechanics. So my next step to trying to understand her semblance is deducing what it does with the thermal energy it takes from the matter.

Given that the temperature of the surrounding matter does not change significantly, miss Gaeradon's semblance must diffuse the thermal energy through the entire area and in a very controlled manner. This is of course the simplest solution I can think of, though even this presents itself with its own complications of how such a diffusion of that much energy could be achieved so as not to cause significant spikes in the temperature of matter surrounding the location of the matter that had its phase-state changed.

Now, miss Gaeradon's semblance may actually have the ability to actually convert energy into mass, indicating why there was such a lack of temperature change in the surrounding area. This of course is far more unlikely, given the extreme difficulties of converting energy into matter. However, it is still a possible explanation to miss Gaeradon's semblance and thus I will not discount it.

 **Current Hypothesis:** Given that the temperature of the surrounding matter does not change significantly, miss Gaeradon's semblance must diffuse the thermal energy through the entire area and in a very controlled manner.

 **Secondary Hypothesis:** Miss Gaeradon's semblance has the ability to actually convert energy into mass, indicating why there was such a lack of temperature change in the surrounding area.

* * *

 **A/N: So this going to be an interesting, least for me, take on the world of RWBY through the eyes (or words) of my own original character. Whether or not characters from the show will pop up is not entirely certain, as this is meant to dive into more of the science in the World of Remnant. I am most certainly going to do my best to try and make any scientific statements as accurately as I can. I am always up for hearing some constructive criticism, so please leave your thoughts and opinions.**


	3. Unfortunate Circumstances

Electronic Journal Entry #2

 **Subject:** Unfortunate Circumstances

Well, my second entry into this electronic journal is going to be rather poor in regards to my news and information; very much opposed to my last electronic journal I made a month ago. The first thing I came across that worried me was a bit more insight into Miss Gaeradon's current affairs. That news would be that the young faunus girl was meant to attend the famed Beacon Academy this coming year [1]. While the disruption of her education as a hunter is not my main concern (I should state that to take such a promising huntress from such quality education does bother me, as it only weakens the defenses against the grimm), it is the fact that I acquired someone who's disappearance may draw unwanted attention.

Despite her being a faunus, Professor Ozpin is far more open minded than most people in this world, and he may show some interest in miss Gaeradon's disappearance. Some may interpret my inclination for capturing faunus for my subjects to be evidence towards a discriminatory personality, however it is not my own discrimination that makes them viable targets. Rather, when most of the higher authorities of the places I collect subjects from are very biased against faunus, it means no legitimate investigation is ever directed towards their disappearance and thus towards me. Most of these indifferent figures of power simply label the missing persons to have been killed by some bigot, or maybe run off to join the White Fang.

It works well in my favor, just because I can acquire subjects without drawing attention and possibly disrupting my work.

Back on topic however, as I seem to have distracted myself, Beacon Academy is most certainly a place that would take interest in the disappearance of their students. So, I now regret somewhat my choice of choosing miss Gaeradon. I should have researched a bit more into who she was going to have relations with. What's done is done however.

The other unfortunate news is that, I am now unable to further conduct research into Miss Gaeradon's semblance, as it seems all fighting spirit she may have had has now left the young woman. Yesterday's attempt at another combat experiment gave me no results, as she did not even attempt to defend herself against my attacks. I had to cancel the experiment as I have no intention of killing her unless absolutely necessary.

In many ways I am disappointed that this had occur. One, I was not expecting a huntress in training to give up so easily. Most see such combat experiments as a wondrous chance to try and get their revenge upon me for the harsh conditions I put them in. Granted, I am well aware that eventually their morale will break, especially given the odds stacked against them, but she caved far earlier than I had been expecting. I guess I can take some comfort in the idea that I may have prevented Beacon from wasting its resources on someone was to weak in willpower. It is a shame really, as physically and skill wise she did appear to be a very capable future huntress.

It upsets me, as with her refusing to participate in the experiment, I cannot measure the activity of her semblance to test my hypotheses, two I have already stated in my previous entry though I did develop a possible third one. The third one was that miss Gaeradon's semblance directs the thermal energy into her own body, offering another explanation as to why there appeared to be very little temperature change in the surrounding air. All I can do now is try to replicate her semblance myself, and test these various hypotheses; it will be difficult not knowing which of my hypotheses are correct however.

My next issue is what I am to do with miss Gaeradon at this time. While the simplest solution would simply be to kill her and dispose of her, I am not one who likes to just toss aside valuable individuals. While her will may be broken right now, I think that with proper rehabilitation should could return to her former capabilities, and lead to another strong huntress to help defend against the grimm. While I am more than capable of providing the necessary therapy myself, I think it is safe to assume she is not going to respond well to my treatments given my actions towards her. She will only interpret my actions as malevolent in nature and thus ignore them.

The best solution I have is, unfortunately, another experimental one I have. It is an solution injected into the bloodstream that I have recently developed, however I have not had much time to test how well it works. In simple terms, the solution is meant to induce complete short-term memory loss, as well as disrupt recollection of more recent memories stored into her long-term memory. I am simply glad I do not make a habit of revealing my face or name, as well as making sure that during transportation of subjects they are thoroughly unconscious. She should only be able to, at best, recall some memories of the experiments and what some of the facilities looked like. However, with no discernible marking to indicate her actual location, I will be safe. I should state that it is entirely possible she may suffer from Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder [2], and her mind will not easily recall the details of her internment anyways. I can only hope that my solution does not cause any permanent damage other than to her memories.

 **Notes by General James Ironwood**

 **[1]:** _Yillman Gaeradon was to attend Beacon Academy as stated in this report, having graduated from Delmat Combat School in Vale. She was graded very high in her physical capabilities, as well as in use of her semblance. Investigation into her disappearance has her parents losing track of her in route to the city of Vale. She had intended to arrive to Vale early, to get to know the place according to her parents._

 _Their last contact with her was mid-route to Vale from the town of Delmat where she lived. She had been travelling by land, and no information of what had occur to result in her capture has been discovered, as there were no witnesses to the kidnapping._

 _As stated by Vaulter in this file, no real investigation to her disappearance was ever conducted until we recovered her south of Vale._

 **[2]:** _Yillman Gaeradon has been officially diagnosed with PTSD, and sadly she has been having a difficult time recovering from the ordeal. It seems that the serum Heinrich Vaulter had used on her, as well as the stress of her incarceration, has caused severe memory issues. I have been told that specifically she is suffering from false memories of what had occurred, as well as dealing with repression of specific details._

 _Miss Gaeradon is currently receiving treatment from Atlas' Mental Health department, a part of the Atlantian Greater Hospital. Her current doctor is Alamean Indrisil, who reports that progress has been slow in aiding miss Gaeradon with recovery from the trauma._

 _We can only speculate that Vaulter's serum is the main cause of this, though without knowing the exact chemistry of it we can not truly determine how much of it is the cause of miss Gaeradon's immense anxiety and inability to recall proper memories of the incident._


	4. Beacon Academy Attendees of Note

Electronic Journal Entry #3

 **Subject:** Attendees of Interest of Beacon Academy

After my recent blunder of taking a future student of Beacon Academy, I could not help but be curious as to any possible attendees that might possibly grab my attention. Going through the hassle of acquiring the admissions records might as well serve more of a purpose than figuring out my mistakes. I must say that a significant amount do not grab my attention by just names, though this simply means I will just have to fish through the files and see if I catch any Semblances that peek my interest.

The first name that definitely caught my attention was miss Pyrrah Nikos, graduate of Sanctum Academy and current champion of the Mistral Regional Tournament four years running. It is interesting to know what academy she had decided to attend, as someone with her credentials could have chosen herself. Any of the major academies would have desired to have her as a student. To be honest I am glad she decided to attend Beacon Academy, as I personally think it is the best of the four out there. The staff may be eccentric, but often times I find madness and genius to simply be two different sides of the same coin; I would consider myself to be such an example, honestly. Unfortunately, my interest in miss Nikos ends there, as her semblance is not one that really catches my interest.

I already understand it to be manipulation of the electrons of matter to generate magnetic fields, and interestingly it is not related to only ferromagnetic fields; it is however limited to only metallic elements and their derived compounds from what I have observed. Regardless of what her particular semblance can effect, it does not interest me all that much because it is truthfully a rather easy semblance to replicate. Creating magnets is not a very difficult thing for me to achieve, as simple manipulation of the electrons in the matter of interest is all that is needed to do so. While production of a permanent magnet is a bit more difficult for me, I can turn objects that would normally show no (visible) magnetic properties (paper, cloth, and wood for example) into temporary magnets. To be fair, it was only recently that I have been able to replicate it; even I am still trying to learn the complete capabilities of my own semblance [1].

So as such, my interest in miss Nikos ends in her decision to attend Beacon. This is unlike the sight of seeing the illustrious name of a Schnee on the attendance records. Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Corporation, attending Beacon Academy. I can only imagine how sour a thought that is for Ironwood, to lose an individual of such renown as a student [2]. I am certainty curious as to how that decision was made, as I strongly feel it was not one made by her father [3].

This particular bit of news is both wonderful, and yet aggravating. It is an extremely tempting proposition to try and acquire miss Schnee, as her family's semblance has always been one of significant interest to me. Several theories on how they function, but I have yet to acquire a Schnee with the capability of using the particular semblance of glyphs and summoning for me to run experiments with (Not that I have ever acquired a Schnee to begin with; those without a semblance don't interest me very much after all).

I do not think it needs to be said though how _dangerous_ a proposition it is to grab myself a Schnee for experimental purposes. Whereas I can take faunus and generally draw little attention, grabbing a Schnee would do the exact opposite. It is a powerful name after all, or at least influential enough to call on the kind of powers I want to avoid. I may not fear General Ironwood all the much, but I do respect the power of him with the Atlantian military behind him. Not to mention, I am a man with a pretty large rap sheet [4]. My capture would be a wondrous boon to the career of any ambitious law enforcer.

It seems I will be left to watch miss Schnee from a distance and try to develop what theories I can based on observations. Sadly without the ability to control the many variables that will effect her performance, I can not make any definitive conclusions on the Schnee semblance. Woe is me!

 **Notes by General James Ironwood**

 **[1]:** _I figure I may as well mention what Heinrich Vaulter's semblance is, or at least what we know of it, as he does not seem inclined to extrapolate on what it is. What we do know is that Doctor Vaulter seems to have the ability to manipulate matter as he desires. The mechanics of it are not understood entirely, but he has been seen to change the many properties of materials, from making metal as pliable and soft as cloth, to making cloth more durable than any known metals._

 _As had been explained to me, Vaulter seems to be able to force matter to "do as he wishes." He's been noted to be able to melt metals in his hand and not be burned by it, start fires without any physical interaction with the material at hand (one witness says they had seen him light a ball bearing on fire and hold it as well with no negative consequences.)_

 _Much of these notes seem to imply that he can force matter to do things it normally would not do given the current circumstances (see Electronic Journal Entry #1 and his report of "containing" frozen nitrogen in a room temperature environment.)_

 _It is difficult to entirely understand the extent of his semblance, as there is no video recordings of his semblance in use, only written testimonies of greatly varying reliability, and age._

 _Vaulter's semblance is what allowed him to create the unique and completely synthetic metal called Vaultite, obviously named after the doctor himself. To give some idea of Vaulter's semblance's capabilities, this metal is composed of a non-naturally occurring element created by Vaulter. There is very little access to Vaultite, and what little the kingdoms do have is of little use, simply because Vaultite has no definable properties; its properties were always at the whim of Vaulter himself._

 **[2]:** _I wish to put on record that, while I was not necessarily happy to lose a huntress of such potential as Weiss Schnee to Ozpin, I in no way think it to be a poor decision. Well, maybe in hindsight it was..._

 **[3]:** _It wasn't his decision, and he let me know that. He let me know that at any moment he got to, which was_ _ **A LOT.**_

 **[4]:** _It is a bit of an understatement to say that Doctor Heinrich Vaulter has a "large" rap sheet. He is wanted on hundreds of counts of kidnapping, inhumane treatment, illegal experimentation, assault and battery, murder, and other various nefarious things. Some of the warrants we have on record are older than the damn light bulb._


	5. Understanding the Potential of the Soul

Audio Recording

 **Preface by General James Ironwood**

 _This particular recording was pulled from the various records that had been recovered from Vaulter's lab that had been raided, the same place we had recovered the journal entries that had been presented so far. This audio recording was separated from the main journal we have been reviewing, it having been placed within a physical filing cabinet which had other CDs in which other audio recordings were placed._

 _This particular recording was not the only one on the disc labelled "Notes and Thoughts for Future Projects.", but it frankly caught my attention the most given the recent, and unfortunate, fall of Beacon Academy._

 _I will not pretend that there may be a more personal interest in this particular recording, given Ozpin's...disappearance. However, I will at least defend my curiosity in this recording as some kind of hope to deal with the losses we have suffered recently. I do not like to put any value in Vaulter's work, but right now, I think it at the very least can give us..or at least me, some kind of hope to work towards._

 _I will mark certain spots to at least give context to this, given that I am transcribing this audio recording into a word document. They will be italicized for clarity of which are my words and which are Vaulter's._

"Alright, this thing recording?" _pause, followed by quiet movements._ "Oh, ok think that...yes, yes it is, good. Augh, I can hack my way into a high profile training academy for the best of the best Hunter and Huntresses, but I still have trouble making sure this thing is even working." _device is picked up, Vaulter can be heard moving._

"So recently, some very troubling news has come to my attention. Ozpin's little secret group certainly did a very good job trying to keep things hidden from prying eyes, but when you have some access to the security network of his academy, it gives me an opportunity to pick up on some of the more secretive details."

"Sadly, it is not perfect, mostly able to peer into general security footage and recordings. His office I had to take a roundabout way, tapping into the microphone of Ms. Goodwitch's scroll." _Vaulter grunts in irritation._ "I am digressing from the purpose of this recording."

"The Fall Maiden has been attacked, and very frightening was hearing that she suffered far more than just physical injuries. It seems Salem, or one of her cronies, managed to siphon some of the Fall Maiden's powers. Unfortunately, Ms. Goodwitch had the right idea to shut off her scroll before I could hear more."

"How the hell did Salem pull it off? How could she actually siphon off the power of the maiden?! That was my initial conundrum! It, however, drew my thoughts back to some of my older thoughts and ideas. Most enjoyable, I believe it actually links to my thesis regarding Semblances, Auras, and their interaction and connection to the physical world."

 _Shuffling can be heard, accompanied by light, metallic footfalls._ "My theories revolve around the concept that the Semblances and Auras are a spiritual manipulation of the physical world around us; manipulation of atoms, energy, mass, electromagnetism, things like that. This theory would then imply that our Semblances, our **Souls** , are able to reach beyond the physical form of our bodies. Ms. Nikos, though magnetism is no mystery to me, is a beautiful example of how the semblance can go far beyond the physical body's own reach. Her body can only manipulate the world two-three feet in diameter, but her soul can reach beyond that. Looking at all who posses Semblances, you see this. Schnee glyphs. Goodwitch's telekinetic capabilities, my own semblance; we reach beyond the range of our physical forms! Our souls can effect the world beyond our own physical form!"

"Why does this tie to the Fall Maiden's loss of power? Well I have multiple reasons as to why. Firstly, Semblances imply that the Soul does not require the physical body to manipulate the physical world. What it does to the world is still bound by the laws of physics that we understand sure, but it does not need to **be physical** to manipulate the **physical**." _Vaulter goes quiet for a moment, then makes a hum to sound like he is thinking._ "Again, I still do not have any real ideas as to how it manipulates the physical world as it does, but that is a thought for another time."

"I present now the idea that a Soul is not bound by the physical body, as made evident by Semblances. So, I now wonder if maybe the Soul is not permanently anchored to the body. That the Soul can exist and operate even when separated from the physical form, such as in the case of death; the Soul can still exist and act on the world. It would explain phenomenons such as ghost sighting, and even the concept of possession, if a Soul is not gone when its physical body is killed. It is still there, somewhere. The Soul and the body are linked, but not stuck together."

 _Another pause, Vaulter's breathing growing heavy as sound of a respirator can be heard. Few moments of this sound is then ended by Vaulter continuing._ "This thought alone, that the Soul is still out there, that the death of the physical is not the end of the metaphysical, presents a whole slew of other theories I will need to pursue! Ideas such as reincarnation, an explanation as to how the Maiden's and their powers can transfer at the physical death of one. An explanation as to why Semblances seem hereditary in nature! _Vaulter pauses again, respirator can be heard again before rough and wheezy chuckling can be heard_ "This could even mean the potential for bringing back the dead! Returning the lost soul to another physical form." _Chuckling turns into mild coughing, followed by Vaulter catching his breath._ "Oh Salem, the box of possibilities you have inadvertently opened for me."

"This theft of the fall Maiden's power, which if we go on the assumption (a horrid word for my inner scientist to say) is based on the soul of the maiden, then this also leads to the idea that the soul can be moved from body to body. This idea is backed-up by the concept of possession, of a wandering soul forcibly occupying an already occupied body. Two souls trying to occupy and control a body would also explain why possessions, as according to most folklore, tends to result in very sporadic and inhuman mannerisms in the possessed. One could think of it like two people trying to drive a car at the same time. Of course the driving will appear to be extremely erratic and strange."

"Back on track Vaulter!" _Vaulter pauses once more for breath_ "Possession can be studied later as well! Right now focus on the theft of her power. I will need to look further into how this was done." _Another hum of thought from Vaulter._ "Hm, wonder if lost souls might have anything to do with Grimm... more ideas for the theory pool."

"Transferring of power is evidence towards Souls not being bound to one physical form, possessing the ability to move free of physical boundaries. Semblances themselves are evidence towards this as well."

 _Heavy thunk can be heard, sounds as if Vaulter is setting recording device down before sitting nearby as well._ "This concept, the metaphysical, while its actions can be explained with the rules of the physical world, is not bound to a physical form makes me wonder if maybe the reverse is just as true. I constantly argue that semblances can be mimicked, and maybe this idea that the metaphysical can work through multiple physical mediums can be used to support my own claim of copying the abilities of the metaphysical through an understanding of the physical world."

 _Long pause of silence, only respirator and sound of chair shifting can be heard before Vaulter continues._ "Maybe even souls, or at the least Semblances and Auras, can be synthesized. I certainly have no idea how such a concept could be followed upon at this time, but then again much of what I rambled about in here falls in the same category of 'Difficult to Comprehend and Understand.' "

 _Vaulter's voice grows louder, moved closer to recording device most likely._ "I will have a lot to mull over these coming days now. I have also had some more individuals come to my attention in the Beacon Attendees, firstly is daughter of former leader of the White Fang Ghira, his little girl Blake Belladona. I thought the surname had seemed familiar to me at first, and some digging led me to Ghira; his name I am far more familiar with. Course, took some more searching and prying to actually connect them as father and daughter, but again such familial relationships are not usually that difficult to get to if you know where to look."

"The second one caught my attention given her age. A miss..." _shifting of some papers accompanied by incoherent mumbling from Vaulter_ "...Ah, there we are. A miss Ruby Rose, a name I am not familiar with in the slightest, but being two years beneath the normal age in which one is normally accepted into Beacon Academy is definitely worth looking into. Ozpin has always had a sharp eye for potential; I have learned to pay attention to those he gives his focus too."

"As of now, I have work I need to get back too. These thoughts I simply needed to get recorded, less I forget such tantalizing theories to look into. I will most likely make a backup of some kind, just in the off chance I misplace this particular recording." _voice softens, indicating Vaulter turned away from recording device._ "I can label my work well," _voice increases in volume once again._ "But damn if I can not actually keep things organized." _The last sound to be heard is Vaulter fiddling with the device before the recording ends._


End file.
